NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATORS
TELECONFERENCE
THURSDAY 19th May 2005 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
MINUTES
Present:
Andrew Cosby National President, VIC (chair)
Graeme Harris NSW (Secretary)
Tony Butler NSW Nigel Grant QLD
Frank Donoghue WA Rowland Clarke ACT
Chairman opened the meeting welcoming 6 reps from 4 States at 8:00 PM.
Apologies. Unable to contact Meredith Weckert, SA, Ian Burleigh (tas) unavailable, Mandy Miller - no contact. (No contact from Northern Territory, TAS in recess).
Minutes of meeting 29th November 2004 Moved : G Harris Seconded : Andrew Cosby Carried
Matters arising:
· Each state was to talk to farming bodies re training Ag teachers. Some talks taking place
· State syllabuses on CD: proceeding. Will anyone have a laptop with CD burner for conference? Yes
· state payments of percapitas $5.00 per year. Not yet levied
· Conference update: Committee working on a program based at CSIRO Canberra and accommodation at Bruce Hall. Sponsorship of $5000 confirmed more being sought. Cost all inclusive should be less than $450. Seeding grant would be helpful. Program will have 3 guest speakers, seven workshops. Flyer to be emailed prior to end of June for inclusion in state journals. Subsciption to be finalised prior to end of November. Early bird discount to be offered. Angela Parker to be handling fees etc.
Moved that $1000 seeding grant to be made, for planning and operation of conference, expenditure at discretion of committee, and that fee be sent at $450. : A Cosby, Seconded F Donoghoe, Carried
Secretary: email messages re teleconference.
NAAE response to House of Representatives enquiry: G Harris tabled, Accepted with amendments from each state as needed. Emailed after meeting. Should funds be needed for state presidents to appear before committee then it will be apporved by short teleconference.
President report:
States very busy. Looking forward to conference. Concern re numbers of Ag teachers.
Teacher Numbers: Discussion resulted in T Butler to apporach R Francis CSU re survey again. R Clark to apporach P Corish, NFF, N Grant isentified ASISTM funding source and promotion of sustainability to young people to get them to be committed to teaching Agriculture.
No other matters so the meeting was closed at approximately 9.00pm
State reports
If I remember correctly, we were asked to gather some data on student enrolments in our states. Some of the figures will be a bit ‘rubbery’, but the following will give you an idea…
· Senior Agricultural Science – approx. 1300 students in years 11-12, enrolled at approx. 60 schools (gender split almost equal – slightly more boys)
· Vet (Agriculture & Horticulture) – approx. 1500 students enrolled in years 11-12, at approx. 70 schools
· Junior agricultural subjects – no figures available – probably offered at 70 schools
I think that we are probably seeing a slow decline in enrolments. It is interesting to see that some school no longer offer the academic subject (probably forced to choose between the VET course and Agric. Science because of low student numbers).
The supply of ag-trained graduates is an on-going concern. Some of the bigger, well-established ag schools are doing OK, with up to 5 trained ag teachers. However, many schools have solo operators and some schools are running ag programs with ‘enthusiastic volunteers’ – teachers without formal qualifications in agriculture (although not necessarily without agricultural experience).
To the best of my knowledge, our ranks will be ‘swelled’ by 3 graduates mid-year. I’m not sure if there are more to follow at the end of the year.
We had a very successful state conference in September last year in Townsville (approx 50 delegates). The theme for the conference was ‘Agriculture Education = Smart Science + Terrific Technology’. A key supporter of the conference was Education Queensland, who gave us some financial assistance so that we could explore ways in which junior agriculture subjects can cover outcomes from the Technology KLA. It looks as though there is more funding available again this year. Our keynote speaker was Julian Cribb, and we had a variety of other guest speakers – mostly from N. Qld. We did several excursions to farms and research institutes.
An issue of concern to emerge recently has to do with a re-structure at the Queensland Studies Authority (oversees syllabus development, accreditation of school work programs and moderation of school-based assessment). Until last year, Agriculture has always had its own Subject Advisory Committee – main responsibility was for the agriculture syllabuses. We have now been subsumed into the Science SAC, as has Marine Science. It will be interesting to see what representation we have on the committee. I suspect that agriculture has been feeling the squeeze in southern states for quite a while – it just took a little longer up here.
Nigel Grant
WA
Western Australia about to undergo considerable change with the role of the agricultural colleges being modified extensively as the changes in the curriculum demanded by the Post Compulsory Review of Education come into effect. Of principal concern to teachers and the Colleges of Agriculture is reduction of four wholly school assessed subjects related to agriculture into a single subject. Moreover, to achieve at the highest levels students will have to spend most of their time ‘in the classroom’ and not ‘in the field’ as is presently the case. In the last couple of months serious reservations about the outcomes based style of education and assessment have been raised by teachers, some academics and the press. However, the Minister and the Universities have strongly supported the changes
Frank Donohoe
Victorian Association of Agricultural and Horticultural Educators.
Report 19th May 2005
At present the association has approximately 70 members. The fees for the year are $77.00.
A review of the V.C.E. Agricultural and Horticultural Studies Units 1-4 took place in 2004. As a result of this a new revised Study Design has been written.
The new study design has the retained much of the old study with much more emphasis on the Enterprise that students need to undertake in this course. The area of Technology has also been revamped.
Workshops are been held in the next week to unpack the new study design along with a new assessment process.
This new study design, it is hoped will address the need to acknowledge more of the practical work that students do during the year.
Communication between Agricultural and Horticultural teachers is improving with the development of an email list that is used like a bulletin board. The advantage of this system is that you do not have to enter the website but just open up your email on a daily basis.
Our end of year Conference will be held at Longerenong in the western district. The dates are the 7,8 and 9th December. Approximately 45 people will attend the conference.
Issues that need addressing.
The Victorian Education Department are introducing a new structure from P-10 called V.E.L.S. which stands for Victorian Essential Learning Standards.
The inclusion of Agricultural and Horticultural concepts in this new framework under the area of Design, Creativity and Technology is of concern. It is important that units of work that cover this area are written.
The decreasing numbers of V.C.E. students choosing Ag and Hort continues to be of concern. It is hoped that the new study design will address this.
Availability of Agricultural and Horticultural teachers is still a concern.
Andrew Cosby
President VAAHE.
NSW Association of Agriculture Teachers
Report 18th May 2005
1. State membership is approx 150
- addressed by mail merges in March & June: Membership Muster
- Sydney Branch reinvigorated & members from this
- continue to address in BAAT to be sent out in mid June
- sent reduced membership fees to Uni students: no response perhaps didn’t get to targets
2. 2006 Ag Teachers Conference
- 25th – 29th April 2006
- Charles Sturt University
- Theme: Environmental Sustainability
- Planning well under way
- Sponsorship: very successful
- Cost to delegates: $270 members & $320 non members
- Great working executive/ links to CSU & DPI (Agricultural Research Institute)
3. Issues:
a. Chemical Course in Schools:
AQF 11 only
TAFE investigating alternative in Riverina
Pressure is being applied at the DET to investigate
Assoc to maintain pressure perhaps NSW Farmers Federation support
Some schools have various models of delivery of chemicals at AQF111
A number of Ag teachers retrained under ChemCert for access to RTO that will issue credentials to students
b. Tractor Training:
TAFE DET & Assoc investigating a course suitable for;
- Primary Industries teacher refresher course (1 day)
- Agriculture Teachers.(not PI trained )/non Ag teachers delivering Ag) (2 days)
- Farm Assistants (2 days)
i. Aim to establish a suitable course trail & then across state if all parties agree
ii. Hopefully something up & running by end of 2005 early 2006
c. Situation with Ag in schools & beyond:
- Contacted Pro. Rod Francis CSU late 2004 for a report on various issues on this issue
- Continued contact throughout this year with report to be a feature in Junes BAAT.
- Rod tied up with a number course review groups.
- Hopefully will be compiled in the near future.
d. Curriculum in Schools
- Some schools need to decide between PI or Ag . This reduces pathways for students
- Expansive curriculum: Student electing Ag subject in both the junior & senior schools is reduced due to the expansive curriculum that is offered by schools.
e. Education policies
distributed by NSW PTC such as:
- Draft Accreditation Support Document at Professional Competence (NSW Institute of Teachers)
- National Values Education in Australian Schools
………..difficult to comment & submit due to distance of Association Executive & time factor that documents arrive
f. Development of Materials to Support the Assessment of Student Achievement for the School Certificate from 2006.
- Board of Studies in conjunction with NSWAAT involving a pilot group of 12 Ag teachers next week to undertake an exercise to align student work samples to the levels of achievements.
- Format will be a professional discussion of how various samples of student work show evidence of levels of achievement as described in the Agricultural Technology Stage 5 grade descriptions
- Further to this people will be involved in activities relating to the development of work samples
g. State wide work shops: Agricultural Technology Satge 4 & 5
- The purpose of these workshops were to provide a 1 day T&D on supporting the introduction of the Agricultural Technology syllabus stage 4 & 5.
The agenda items focussed on supporting technology teachers with:
- issues
- processes around assessing &
- reporting new technology syllabuses
- The program consists of 20 state wide workshops commencing on 10th March commencing at Parramatta & concluding with the final workshop in Bathurst on June 8.
SA, TAS, not submitted